One of the symbols of today’s “always on” workaholic is the BlackBerry. Some see this as the chain to the office, meaning you’re always available, 24/7, to the office whenever they need to get a hold of you. Others see it as the thing that frees them from their desk, allowing them to get back to their life and gain a bit of control over their schedule. So who’s right? I’d have to say both.

To me, this is one of those arguments that reminds me of a motivational phrase I’ve seen; “Those who think they can and those who think they can’t are both right.” Basically, whether the BlackBerry is the chain the binds you or the key that frees you is largely up to you.

“Is it really that simple?” you ask. Well, yes and no. There are other factors that contribute, such as a boss who expects you to always be available, or clients in other timezones, or the like. However, I would argue that you have some control even over those external factors, or at least in how you choose to deal with them.

Much of the challenge with external factors is in setting expectations and boundaries. In some cases certain expectations that aren’t even directly associated with you’re BlackBerry might be able to help. For instance, if you’re able to set the expectation that you only check your email at certain times during the day, it is a bit more of a stretch for people to think that you might be checking it every three minutes when you’re out of the office, thus they might think again about emailing you. Or even if they do, your argument that you didn’t see it becomes a lot more credible. This expectation basically removes the idea that email is a channel for urgent communications.

But what about that boss? Well, this is a little harder to manage, especially if your boss is a workaholic themselves. If the are always on, then it can be tougher to try to set some distance yourself. However, this does not mean that you should not try. If you are worried, try to talk to your boss about what their expectations are in the BlackBerry. They might even not be thinking of this as a 24/7 thing either, so your perception of the situation may actually be worse than reality. If they are expecting greater communication, then you may try to set some boundaries or expectations. Finding a middle ground that both of you can be comfortable with is the key to this situation. The biggest problem arises when you’ve got separate expectations. If your boss expects to get you at a moment’s notice (or within a reasonable time frame), and you turn your BlackBerry off at 6PM and then on again at 7AM, that could be a problem. However, if your boss knows this, they’ll decide that it can either wait until the morning, or if they deem it that urgent, they’ll find another way to get in touch. If you find that you can’t reason with your boss at all and they don’t respect your personal time, then perhaps you need to consider making a change in your job.

So as you can see, we can actually have a lot of control over our BlackBerry. By setting the correct boundaries and choosing to control your time, you can turn the BlackBerry into a tool for freeing you from your desk, not chaining you to it.

By being able to have a better control over when and where you work, you can contribute to a better balance. If you’re waiting on that email from your contact in India, but you need to get home and make dinner before driving your children to hockey practice or piano lessons, being able to step away from the office and still see that email gives you the ability to do both.

I will admit, I’m a BlackBerry user myself, and before I decided to get one, I was concerned as well. But through making the conscious choice to make the BlackBerry a tool rather than to make myself the tool of the BlackBerry, and have found it to help with me attaining a balance immensely.

What have you found, has a BlackBerry made things easier or harder for you to attain or maintain a good work-life balance? Share your thoughts in the comments.